Written by Faith Anderson on April 16, 2019

A federal jury in San Francisco awarded plaintiff Edwin
Hardeman more than $80 million in damages late last month, after determining
that exposure to the popular weed killer, Roundup, was a substantial factor in his
development of cancer. According to Hardeman’s lawsuit, the California resident
was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in February 2015, after more than two
decades of spraying Roundup on his 56-acre property to deal with weeds, poison
oak and overgrowth. The jury awarded Hardeman $5.27 million in compensatory
damages and $75 million in punitive damages, which are intended to punish
Monsanto and hold the company accountable for its misconduct.

Massive Verdicts in Roundup Lawsuits

Hardeman’s Roundup lawsuit is the first case to be tried in
federal court, but there are roughly 11,000 other Roundup cancer cases still pending
against Monsanto in state and federal courts. All of these lawsuits involve
similar allegations that plaintiffs developed cancer after being exposed to
Roundup, a weed killer whose active ingredient, glyphosate, is widely used in
the United States and sold in more than 160 countries around the world. In
fact, while glyphosate was once only used on a small scale, it is today considered
the most-used agricultural chemical in the history of the world, and reports
indicate that more than nine million tons of glyphosate have been sprayed on
crops, orchards, lawns and gardens worldwide since the weed killer was
introduced in 1974.

As more evidence emerges about the potential for glyphosate
and Roundup to cause cancer in users, the number of Roundup lawsuits brought
against Monsanto continues to grow. Just last year, a California jury awarded
$289 million in damages to Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year-old who developed terminal
cancer after using Roundup 20 to 30 times per year for his job as a groundskeeper
at a school district near San Francisco, including two incidents where he was
soaked with the weed killer. Johnson’s total damages award was later reduced to
$78 million, but the case still set a precedent for the thousands of other
Roundup lawsuits that claim the most popular herbicide in the world causes
cancer and that Monsanto knew about the potential link between Roundup and
cancer and covered it up.

Glyphosate is “Probably Carcinogenic to Humans”

Individuals across the country who were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma and other cancers began filing lawsuits against Monsanto after a
report from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research
on Cancer (IARC) suggested that Roundup’s active ingredient has the potential
to cause cancer. The report, which was published in 2015, indicated that
glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans,” but Monsanto was quick to discredit
the report, saying that hundreds of studies published in recent years have
established glyphosate is safe for human use.

Evidence of Monsanto’s Glyphosate Cancer Risk Coverup

Following the IARC report on glyphosate, evidence began to
emerge that Monsanto knew about the potential risk of cancer from Roundup for
more than a decade, and not only deliberately withheld this information from the
public, but also engaged in an elaborate scheme to prevent the truth from being
discovered. Discovery documents released by the court suggest that Monsanto ghostwrote
reports for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding glyphosate’s
safety, conspired to prevent studies from being published that presented
glyphosate in an unfavorable light, persuaded key EPA officials to declare that
glyphosate is “not likely to be carcinogenic” to humans, and exercised its influence
over the EPA to prevent other agencies from conducting their own assessments of
glyphosate.

Monsanto Still Faces Thousands of Roundup Lawsuits

Monsanto’s long history of deception and manipulation has
led to thousands of lawsuits being filed against the company by Roundup users
who claim the weed killer caused them to develop cancer, and attorneys
representing plaintiffs like Edwin Hardeman say these multimillion-dollar verdicts
send a message to Monsanto that the company needs to make significant changes
in the way it does business.

Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, announced that it would
appeal Hardeman’s $80.3 million verdict, saying, “We are disappointed with the
jury’s decision, but this verdict does not change the weight of over four
decades of extensive science and the conclusions of regulators worldwide that
support the safety of our glyphosate-based herbicides and that they are not
carcinogenic. The verdict in this trial has no impact on future cases and
trials, as each one has its own factual and legal circumstances.” Despite Bayer’s
claim that the Hardeman verdict will have no impact on future trials, the case was
classified by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria as a bellwether trial, which
means the verdict could put plaintiffs in the remaining cases appearing before
Chhabria in a better bargaining position during any potential settlement talks.

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Do you deserve compensation?

An attorney will review your situation for FREE and help you found out what really went wrong.

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Please Explain Your Situation

By clicking the "Submit" button below, you agree that law firms you are matched with may contact you by telephone even if you are on a federal or state Do Not Call registry. Up to 10 law firms may respond to your request within approximately 2 weeks. In some cases 3 or more firms may respond to your request after 30 days. Use of this site is subject to our Terms of Use.

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